This 50+ page ebook created by Mike Corriero for 3dtotal covers all areas of creature design, providing you with the necessary information to create your own unique concepts from scratch. Each lesson will touch upon a specific important aspect in what makes a great creature over just your average creature. Advice will also be given on what to stay away from, in order to steer clear of making a bad design or just a dull creature in general. Over the six chapters, you’ll gradually obtain a reference library stretching from the basics in animal anatomy to much more complex ways of exploring what is actually possible and plausible, or what would be considered thinking “outside the box”. There really are no limits to what is considered a conceptual creature, there are only distinctions between naturalistic designs (which are generally more plausible designs based upon rules) and what would be considered alien or even magical creatures (which are endless in the limitation of ideas).

Chapter 1
What we’re going to cover here are the basics for all creature design, discussing relative anatomy to that of Mammals, Fish, Insects, Dinosaurs, Vertebrates and Invertebrates. I’ll be referencing some of the families of existing animals as well as extinct species and the relationship of varying sizes, from something so small as an organism to that of a Sauropod or Giant Whale, and how they all fit into designing an imaginary creature.

Chapter 2
In this chapter, we’ll be exploring how to create naturalistic, imaginary creatures by drawing on similar aspects of design and anatomy that exist in real-world animals. A naturalistic approach to creature design abides by certain rules to coincide with that of true animal anatomy. Naturalistic creatures are unique and original designs but they stick to the traits of each class type, be it mammal, bird, fish, reptile, amphibian, insect, crustacean or arachnid.

Chapter 3
In this portion of the chapter I’m going to discuss and give some insight into a quick design process for producing a group of thumbnail sketches and refining one of them. Next we’ll move on to a quick discussion on weight distribution and how the size of an animal or its design structure affects how its body plan is laid out. I’ll go more in depth about skeletal structure but this time focusing on a fictional creature and taking that to a final design, leading up to discussions about texture.

Chapter 4
The head of a creature or an animal is the most complex portion of the overall concept. The head is very important because it contains the essential elements that the creature needs to survive, show emotion and it also builds character. Some of the most vital organs, such as eyes, ears, the nose and mouth, make up the head of a creature. It’s through the manipulation and plausible construction of these elements that you give life to an interesting design.

Chapter 5
The focal point of this chapter will be on the variation between body types and body structures. Each design can be categorized into its own sub-category in which the creature can contain a similar body type but the structure may differ from one to the next. An example of this in real life would be Apes, Monkey’s and Gorillas. They all follow a similar body plan but each have their own distinct body structure, each with their own unique skeleton and muscle design.

Chapter 6
This is the final chapter of the eBook and I’ll be discussing how color and patterns affect the aspect of design and the original idea behind the concept. I’ll also be showing you a few step by step shots on the finalization of two fully colored, rendered and detailed creatures. These creatures will have been put together by using all the tools we discussed from chapters 01 to 05. This final part of the series will wrap up everything you learned and show you how to put it to use.

Original Author: 3dtotal.com Ltd.